NOTE: This 13 x 8 cm notebook is bound in red leather with the border blind embossed: the brass clasp is intact. The paper bears the watermark 'J. Whatman 1830'. The front of the notebook has a label of cream-coloured paper (5.3 x 4.4 cm) with 'Rio de Janeiro excursion city. M. Video Bahia Blanca' written in ink. The notebook has 98 surviving pages. There are two sequences of text. The first sequence, pages 1a-20a, from the front cover inwards; the second sequence, pages 1b-86b, from the back cover inwards.

Editorial symbols used in the transcription:
[some text] 'some text' is an editorial insertion [some text] 'some text' is the conjectured reading of an ambiguous word or passage[some text] 'some text' is a description of a word or passage that cannot be transcribed< > word(s) destroyed <some text> 'some text' is a description of a destroyed word or passageText in small red font is a hyperlink or notes added by the editors.

Reproduced with the permission of English Heritage (Darwin Collection at Down House) and William Huxley Darwin.

1 A soft dark brown limestone occurring embedded and sometimes stratified in the surface formation of the Pampas (OED). A local name from the Spanish 'tosco', rough, coarse. For further information about tosca see Herbert 2005, p. 98. Called caliche in North America.

Mimosa natural veil Forest like but more glorious than those in the engraving; gleams of sunshine: parasitical plants: lianas: large leaves: sun sultry all still. but large & brilliant butterflies: much

water: surprised to see guinea fowls: our calvacade very quixotic: the banks most teeming with wood & beautiful flowers; village of Itho regular like the Hottentots: the poor blacks thus perhaps try to persuade themselves that they are in the land of their fathers. The rock from which old woman threw herself. —

I caught a small turrited Lymnæa,1 but in this the sea periodically flows perhaps at the SW Gales: is not this fact curious? would not such circumstances produce tertiary2 strata, beds of sand full of Mactra easily cemented: then we went through impenetrable forest. trees [cylc] f very tall. stems

2 The relatively recent period of earth history between the Quaternary (which includes the Ice Age and the present) and the Mesozoic ('Secondary'). Characterised by the dominance of mammals over reptiles and the absence of ammonites.

white: wonderful beautiful flowering parasites & fire flies, [wren] bird: large ant hills: we have been nearly 10 hours on horseback: slept at Ingetado; after a merry & sleepless night started at 5 oclock: the sky became red & the stars died away & then the planets

all promised well. but 15 miles before arriving at Addea de St Pedro nearly killed us together with waiting an hour for breakfast, the road lay on the borders of lacoon. shore composed of an infinite shells: at ½ after 12 started again; the road passed through sand with broken shells, although

some miles from the sea. & the trees attested how long things have thus remained: we then entered the forest; beds of quartz boulders; — after some miles came to Campos Novos good venda - in a open country. a pleasant change: very cool on the turf only 74˚. —

in a wonderful manner; passed through more swampy country & then entered a magnificent forest: sublime. trees lofty. well seen & contrasted in the cleared parts: palms, very thin stalks. beautiful in the forest cabbage palm. edible; [spinnach]

Arrived at the Fazenda of Sosego. situated in a Forest. square. coffee Mandioka.1 much game, number of horses cattle poultry & wild animals: patriarchal style of living a long house. with a roof of reeds. [layout of the fazenda]

at one end gay furniture a long dining room & bed rooms kitchen & large store houses: situated on a hillock. on the other side of the

square. sleeping rooms, & round the hill the house of more than one 100 blacks: children of these people stray into dining room. till driven away: daughter of our host Donna Maria, handsome & dignified married to Mr Laurie a scotchman & brother of our companion: on receiving a guest or the Signor a large bell is rung & cannon

fired. on leaving the house a crowd of blacks come to be blessed by the white man: one morning before daylight I was admiring the stillness of the forest. when it was broken by a Catholic morning raised by a the blacks. effect sublime:

this patriarchal style fascinating. but destroyed by our host being a villain: enterprising character. has cut excellent roads through the wood: saw mill cutting up thick planks of Rose wood. something like a large-leaved acacia: dreadful the difficulty of procuring surgical aid: our host plenty of Medicines: saw a canoe

building 70 feet long & 40 more left of solid & thick trunk: I should think in this family the blacks were decidedly happy. — The son in law coming only 2 days short journey found it necessary to bring 17 people with him: stayed at Sosego during the 13th [April 1832]

On the 14th [April 1832] started at midday for Mr Lennon's estate, after a beautiful ride stopped at a Facend. within a league of our end; blacks miserably worked long after dark: were received very hospitably by the only brazilian that I have yet seen with a pleasant expression

15th [April 1832] Started early saw some beautiful birds, Toucans & bee eaters all the rock is gneiss granite. Mica

bamboos. disappointed (day before saw a Papyrus?) & some small elegant tree ferns. — had a man to cut a road for us with a sword: when we arrived heard a disagreeable & most violent quarrel — between Mr L & Cowper his agent: they talked of pistols: so bad a character

2 or 300 feet above the & only scarcely any above the adjoining country: Rio Macae is navigable the whole way & not [more] 5 or 6 leagues in length & runs close by these places. — At here the air where passing over the forest on the level of the house becomes converted into cloud: rain has fallen

every day: a remarkable scarcity of rounded pebbles during all our course in the interior:

16th [April 1832] started early in the morning to the Juer do Paz. & proceeded to Sosego. pleasant ride & much enjoyed the glorious woods: Bamboo 12 inches in circumference. Several sorts of trees ferns:

20th. [April 1832] returned by the old route to Compos Novos. a tiresome ride all through a scorching & heavy sand. plain of rhododendrons had some difficulty in making our horses swim & in danger from a drunken man in canoe. — 21st [April 1832] time often by S † [Southern Cross] Started by daylight arrived after

a very long day almost without rest to Rio Comboata: miserable venda. — passed through an interesting cultivated country: this is the interior road, branching off at Paratra; Many of the fields from numbers of ants nest looked like Humboldt mud volcanoes

reddish clay producing sugar cane. little coffee: met several riding people & a few heavy carts dragged by 8 oxen. wheells almost a solid board. — no house in the whole country as good as a good farmers house. no road as good as a bad turnpike road in its worst parts. —

at the vendas seldom see a woman. not worth seeing distances most inaccurately known. — not above a score of murders or crosses. — In Heavens name in what are blacks better off than our English labourers? The national guardsman

in second or small piece of chloritic schist entangled: line of cleavage & fracture same as mica slate planes of fracture even dipping SSW Salt springs streams & bed of muscle shells under town show recent origin.

right through centre of hill E by N [this] compact D sonorous slate conchoidal fracture1 (G SSE) clear ENE cleavage has a tendency to lean over & dip to NNW — on other side it leans or dips to opposite quarter of the compass

1 The way brittle materials such as glass fracture, not following any natural planes of separation.

Punta Alta. Octob 6th [1832] The beds have been deposited in the sea. hence inequalities in the lower conglom is filled up by the Tosca & then again by the upper bed which is sometimes conglom & sometimes earthy. circumstances were rather different during its deposit & present though: the

sea is now destroying it & has destroyed a bank of some miles leaving only lower horizontal conglom: whilst on other places it is now heaping up bank. — believed the cliffs in a bit of table land formerly bottom of sea — & the line of heaped

up bank & on this is nearly continuous with the rest of coast. which show there was not such very great dissimilarity of circumstances: subsequent to the general elevation the strata have been washed away but that now the sea has begun again to heap

by the vegetation I think it clear this belongs to the Punta Alta & M. Hermoso formation: but that from some cause neither sandstone nor conglom were deposited; perhaps this was further t plain turf level — probably caused

by sudden irruption of earthy matter from the shore — The sea probably flowed over it for some time as sand hillocks show: sand hillocks running W by N. E by S. (K 2 ) bearing to tent WSW ½ W bearing to

Examine diluvium; are there any lava pumice pebbles: Are there shells in Tosca: Has the deposit of sandstone cut up the Tosca; examine action of tide on the latter: Are there old shells on hillocks: examine general appearance of latter: Is the Tosca externally harder;

(no)

(Lava pebbles) siliceous sandstone & the sandstone broken up by

quartz pebbles.

Swifts in flocks.

Curious habits of Lizard

NNW by W line in which the strata thicker —

remarkable gradual shoal to the anchor:

(5 to 7) 2 miles black clay formed by the action of water on the Tosca

Phylla Mica Slate with straigh[t] bands of siliceous when most frequent is altered into Phyllade1 — — frequent alternation — crossed by irregular beds or dykes of (granitic?) rock which runs into it the quartz [oze] bands, only differs in not

possessing cleavage ∴ — if mica slate was deposited in horizont layer this must have been a piece in middle projecting upward [without] any— Rowlett1 about trousers Sea eggs2 50 fathoms off the Straight of Magellan

1 George Rowlett (d. 1834), Purser of the Beagle.

2 Sea urchins.

Textual notes to the Rio notebook

[FC] a faint word or number in pencil is now illegible.

[IFC] 1.10.] Down House number, not transcribed.

88202330] English Heritage number, not transcribed.

[IBC] C. Darwin] ink.

1A] added by Nora Barlow, pencil, not transcribed.

[1b] NW] ink, obscured by doodle in ink.

[11b] Campos Novos] added pencil.

[48b] page written parallel to the spine.

[53b] R Island] ink.

[54b] Hyalomictite)] ink.

[81b] Megatherium...places.] written perpendicular to the spine over 'Upper'.